A BRIEF CITATION GUIDE FOR INTERNET SOURCES IN HISTORY AND THE
HUMANITIES (Version 2.1)

The following suggestions for citations of Internet sources in
history and the humanities are derived from the essential principles
of academic citation in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of
Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 5th ed. (Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, 1987). I have also drawn upon
suggestions from some of the works listed in the bibliography below.

Since version 1.0 appeared, many people have raised issues about
both internet and humanities citation standards. The comments of
readers and users of earlier versions have been particularly helpful
in making revisions and refinements in the Guide. It has also been
improved by the the students of my Historical Methods classes at East
Tennessee State University and my fellow H-AFRICA editors. I thank
all of these individuals for their assistance.

Since the Internet is an evolving institution, this Guide is not
intended to be definitive. Corrections, additions, comments,
suggestions, and criticisms are therefore welcome. Please address
them to the author at:

In some ways, the Internet poses problems for those who want to make
fixed references to documents which are frequently less than
permanent and generally subject to alteration. Yet historians and
humanists have for generations faced similar problems in citing
sources. Private correspondence held by families of its recipients
or in duplicate copies made the authors, for example, has long posed
citation difficulties similar in nature to individual e-mail
correspondence (and gopher and World Wide Web sites as well).

New electronic information technology, however, has brought with it
advocates of scholarly citations whose concerns are designed first
to meet the needs of the new technology and only then the interests
of humanistic scholarship. In contrast, historians and their
brethern have scholarly inclinations that lead them in two
directions: one toward the need for precision in identifying a
source and its provenance; the other focusing on a desire to provide
a guide to a source's location for subsequent researchers.

The date of a source, for example, is one area where the two
views are sometimes far apart, as has been made clear in numerous
comments and questions about previous versions of this Guide. For
information technologists, the most recent posting date for a Web or
gopher site in which a document is found generally provides the best
date for a citation. Yet historians are more interested in the date
when a particular document was written or created. The preference
here has been for the latter.

Another problem involves the citation of e-mail correspondence. Such
sources are seen as undependable by information technologists unless
they exist in some electronic archive; the archive then becomes the
primary source citation. Humanistic scholars also are concerned
about issues of impermanence, such as the question of paper documents
which, once cited, are donated to an obscure library or archive,
even destroyed. Yet their citations are to the original source, and
only secondarily indicate a new location or note the material is no
longer extant. Such practice seems appropriate for historian's
citations of Internet materials as well.

At the same time, there are certain conventions in the use of the
Internet which require the attention of humanities scholars. It is
appropriate, for example, to recognize the convention of using
pointed brackets, < >, to enclose electronic addresses. Standard
Internet practice is also to put the address on one line so that, if
a hypertext link to that address is created, it can be easily and
accurately read. An address which continues onto a second line often
cannot be read as a complete address. But in print citations it is
often preferable for the address continue from one line to another.
When that is necessary, the compromise suggested here is that
punctuation marks in Internet addresses (such as @ . or / but not ~)
be at the end of one line with only letters, numbers, or ~ beginning
on the next line.

Generally, the use of URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses is
also preferred for most Internet materials. Nonetheless, humanists
who for the time being access material at gopher sites through a
gopher address, following a particular menu path, or by anonymous
File Transfer Protocol (ftp) may prefer a citation format that
actually replicates how they found the material. (This may change as
URL access through the World Wide Web becomes more universal).

There are also questions about how to deal with frequent changes in
Internet addresses, especially as Web sites are updated and expanded.
Even the best attempts at citing such material may lead subsequent
researchers to a dead end. This is a particular concern not just for
humanists, but also for information technologists. No method of
citation can overcome this particular problem which, instead, cries
out for great foresight in planning Web sites in addition to careful
explanations and Web links to materials which may be moved.

The use of an author's e-mail address was also mentioned as a
concern by some of those who commented on earlier versions of this
Guide. Such citations can, indeed, be problematic. Please be
considerate of those whose work you cite. In this Guide the only
addresses included are those which are a part of the public record
(for example, listed at the WWW or gopher site in the citation) or
for which permission has been obtained.

Finally, it should be noted again that this Guide is based upon
citation principles contained in Turabian's Manual. This has led
to certain conventions which would not appear in other formats. One
of these is the representation of italics for book and journal
titles. These are indicated here by opening and ending asterisks
(* *) in the belief that they are more distinctive on the
computer screen than other possibilities, such as opening and ending
underscoring (_ _).

Some historians advocate using other basic citation principles
and formats--such as MLA or APA--especially for electronic sources.
There are also a variety of questions raised for citations of CD-ROM,
binary files, and other electronic materials. While these issues are
not addresses in this Guide, the bibliography below will lead to
citation suggestions for some of these applications.

Author's Last Name, First Name <author's internet address, if
appropriate>. "Title of Work" or "title line of message." In "Title of
Complete Work" or title of list/site as appropriate. <internet
address>. [menu path, if appropriate]. Date, if available. Archived at:
if appropriate.

The samples below indicate how citations of particular electronic
sources might be made.

note number. Author's First name and Last name, &ltauthor's
internet address, if available&gt, "Title of Work" or "title line
of message," in "Title of Complete Work" or title of list/site as
appropriate, <internet address>, [menu path, if appropriate], date
if available, archived at if appropriate.

The examples below indicate how citations of particular electronic
sources might be made.

Sonya Legg, <legg@harquebus.cgd.ucar.edu>, "African history
book list," in <soc.culture.african>, 5 September 1995, archived at
<http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/archive/african-faq.general.html>.

**************************************************
Copyright Melvin E. Page, 1995, 1996.
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full acknowledgement of its source and authorship.
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